Is It Possible (or Recommended) to Trace a Phone Hacker?

While tracing a hacker is potentially possible, you shouldn't do it alone

Possibility

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Retaliation

If a hacker has compromised your phone, you may be wondering if you can trace the hacker's location yourself to figure out who is hacking you. Unfortunately, this is not something you can do on your own easily, and contacting local law enforcement is your best chance at legally bringing the hacker to justice. In this article, we will go over whether it's possible to trace someone who is hacking your phone.

Things You Should Know

If you're concerned your phone is hacked, law enforcement can help you with specialized tools.
If you get contact information for your hacker, using that information to trace their location would be illegal.
If you don't want to contact the police right away, remove any suspicious apps or factory reset your phone to push the hacker out.

Section 1 of 2:

Is it possible to trace a hacker?

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1
Hackers can be traced, but not easily. Unfortunately, there are no simple ways to trace a phone hacker without getting help from law enforcement. However, if you are concerned your phone is hacked but you don't want to call the police right away, you can try these steps:
- Contact the developer of an app you don't remember installing. Navigate to the App Store or Google Play Store page of the app and click App Support (iOS) or Developer Contact (Android). You can use this information to contact the developer to ask for more information, or you can provide this information to the police if you decide to contact them.^{[1]XResearch source}^{[2]XResearch source}
- Delete any apps you don't remember installing and change passwords for accounts connected to your device. This includes banking passwords, your Apple ID or Google account passwords, email passwords, and social media passwords, as a hacker could compromise these.
- Factory reset your Android or iPhone. If you are worried there is an app on your device that is tracking you, the easiest way to get rid of it would be to completely factory reset your phone. Make sure you keep your phone's operating system up to date after you factory reset, and don't install any apps that you don't trust to prevent your device from getting hacked again.
If you are hacked and nothing will make the hacking stop, you should contact law enforcement for help. Hacking is illegal, and the police have tools that can help them locate phone hackers that are not available to the general public.^{[3]XResearch source}.

Section 2 of 2:

Should you try to retaliate against a hacker?

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You should not retaliate against a hacker without help from police. If you can recover your account information, you should still report any hacking incidents to the police, as hacking is illegal. Even if you are able to figure out who is hacking you, that information would be valuable in an investigation, and retaliating against a hacker (also called "hacking back") may not be legal depending on where you are located.^{[4]XResearch source} Always be sure to research laws for your state/region and country, as well as municipal laws.
- If you get critical information about your hacker, such as contact information, this information should be used in a police investigation.